Organizational learning: Proposal of an integrative scale and research instrument

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Organizational learning scale Modes of knowledge conversion Learning sub-processes Types of learning This study describes the development and validation of an instrument to measure organizational learning. Starting out from a comprehensive analysis of the main organizational learning models in the specialized literature , the organizational learning scale in this study consists of 18 items forming five dimensions: the ontological levels of learning, modes of knowledge conversion, learning sub-processes, types of learning, and feedback and feed-forward flows of learning. A survey to large Spanish companies provides data from 167 companies. Con-firmatory factor analysis tests the construct measurement model and validates the scale. The results of the study indicate that the scale satisfies the criteria for reliability, and validity. The exploratory factor analysis permits the identification of four factors which make theoretical sense: information systems, the existence of a framework for consensus, procedures for the institutionalization and broadening of knowledge, and forms of management and the genesis of knowledge. The new construct promises to be more comprehensive, integrative and eclectic than previous constructs, achieving its broad scope by incorporating a number of the main theoretical perspectives on the matter. For practitioners, the scale could form the basis of an auditing tool, as well as being a useful target for organizational change initiatives. Probing into the study of learning from the perspective of corporate policy and organizational theory often results in a feeling of only reaching a superficial level of understanding. Perhaps for this reason, and not only for its merely instrumental use by company management, the study of these concepts attracts an incessant and ever-growing interest. Despite academic interest in the subject, an integrative and comprehensive theory of such a complex, dynamic concept is still a long way from crystallizing. Nonetheless, scholars define the concept as, 'the study of the learning processes of and within organizations' (Easterby-Smith & Lyles, 2003: 9). Together with other priorities for current and future research on the matter, a key issue is the development of a valid, reliable measurement instrument for organizational learning (Easterby-Smith & Lyles, 2003). Each empirical study and measurement that aims to capture the organizational learning phenomenon usually restricts itself to a single theoretical model. Consequently, discrepancies arise in the scales as frequently as in the theories themselves. The main contribution of this paper to previous research consists of the theoretical comprehensiveness …